!! Match this Saturday: Jan 27 th : full match of six stages; registration cut off 9:30

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1 February, 2018 Thunder River Renegades, Inc Vol. VI, No 2 The Premiere Cowboy Action Shooting Club in Grimes County, Texas 9/10 of a mile north of the Texas Renaissance Festival Main Entrance look for the Red, White and Blue sign Click here for printable Monthly Calendars!! this Saturday: Jan 27 th : full match of six stages; registration cut off 9:30 Dec 30 : we had 25 shooters on the last match of Not a bad turnout as several of us were sick and with end-of-year events just a day away choices had to be made. For the most part the cowfolk was our usual bunch and with several new-to-our-club cowboys present: Cap n Ball and Case Harden were among them. Baba Looey made the trip down from the WHC area to blast away and Revenooer won for most consecutive vowels in an Alias. Now that Dusty Bottoms is back from his surgery and recovery along the French Riviera, he and Little Britches are shooting up a storm not to mention Ghost Bandit having the time of his life. Jan 6 th : we were blessed with one of the best days, weather-wise, for engaging in our sport/hobby/obsession. The temp was such that I could keep my cowboy hat on for the entire match and the light breeze allowed the BP shooters to only wait for 2-5 seconds before the targets became visible. Overall was decided by 1.76 seconds or less than.3 seconds per stage! When the dust settled Buckshot Sully just bested Oklahoma Dee for top honors. Another way to look at it: Sully s score was 2 ¼ times faster than mine but I had more time on the firing line than he did. Green Eyed Gypsy, Owen No-one as well as Cany Creek Cowboy were back at it again. Close personal friends of Shotglass and TJD, they felt the need to shot at the best SASS club in all of Grimes County, TX. Jalapeno and Doc Jim Harvey were first timers and we appreciate their making the long and dangerous treck from FM 1774 back to our range. Clean es Dec 30 and Jan 6: Cherokee Jones, Fast Tracker, GW Ketchum (2), Nile City Slick, Oklahoma Dee, cheyenne 11% clean: both matches combined 1

2 Our Friends who have moved on down the Trail Marcus Hooker s passing: we again mourn the passing of Marcus, a great friend and fellow club member. He passed on Jan 10 and per his request no formal service was held. Our prayers and condolences go out to his family and friends as they move through these hard times. We can take comfort that he touched our lives and for that made us laugh and enjoy live more. Marcus, you were loved and will be missed. Also passing from our ranks is Red Dawg who has been a member before dirt was invented. As you can see by his outfit he enjoyed our sport fully. He was a great posse member and in the words of Bear Gunz, Red Dawg was one of the first people I met when I started shooting CAS in I had the pleasure of shooting with him at many of the clubs in Central Texas as well as many occasions to enjoy his company over lunch or a cup of coffee. A true gentleman and man of the world. He will be missed by all who knew him. All start times change through March: due to the massive amount of fun we encounter getting up and driving to the range on these cold, dark winter mornings the club voted to move forward by an hour start times for all matches and practice days. So till the end of March the registration cut-off for our World Famous Cowboy es will be 9:30 a.m. You might want to throw a snack in the old saddle bags as this pushes lunch back an hour too. Practice days will be open for business at 8:00 am., and Open Range Activities will start at 10:00 a.m. to give you time to do a bit of sighting in. 2

3 Club Badges: Our yearly info article on how you can have your very own, personally engraved Club Badge and Ear Wax Remover. Our badges are made by the same company take makes Police and Sheriff s badges; they are heavy duty, well made and have been mistaken for an actual LEO badge by a Harris County Constable (great story ask Fast Tracker about it.) Make your check out to me, L. M. DeBose, for $69. You can send it to me at Clover Lane Ct., Houston, or wait until you see me at the Range. I will also need the correct spelling of your cowboy alias, and your mailing address. Red River Mac NOTES FROM OLE SMOKEY Winter Roller Coaster Welcome to the Texas Winter Roller Coaster from arctic conditions to springtime in the space of less than one week. I hope everyone survived the recent visit from Father Frost without damage. For y all that aren t natives, this is the first time since the winter of 1972/1973 that Houston has had snow twice in one year. I remember that well as I was on Christmas vacation my first year at good old Aggieland. I remember driving back to school in an ice storm so I wouldn t miss any classes. There s nothing like dedication and fear of the prof s wrath! Long Range Well, we ve had our inaugural gong matches and rimfire silhouette match. GW Ketchum has stepped up and claimed the 2017 Gong championship and also the first win of 2018! That Blind Squirrel (according to an unnamed competitor from Colorado) has found two acorns and is feeling cocky. However, the game is now afoot and other seasoned long range competitors are tuning up their rifles and taking practice more seriously. GW needs to stay on top of his game if he wants to keep his title intact. Folks are gunnin for him! All kidding aside, these matches are lots of fun. The pace is leisurely and there is plenty of time for harassing all of the competitors. I think at this point, Rawhide s finely honed skills have him in the lead for the King of Harassment title. We ve had folks shoot everything from Trapdoors, to lever guns to single shots. Drag what ya got from the back of the safe and come join us. Fallen Shooters As I m sure most of you have heard, we ve lost both Marcus Hooker and Red Dawg in the last month. Also, Chance is in a bad way with cancer. Please keep all these folks and their families in 3

4 your prayers. It certainly brings home the fact that we re all getting long in the tooth, and we re losing too many of our old friends. Upcoming es Don t forget that we have several good matches coming up in the near future. There s Jail Break at Oakwood Outlaws Feb That s always a good match just a couple of hours up the road. Then we have the TSRA Regional at Thunder River on March 10th. Texas Ghost always puts on a good match and we get to slip in another day of shooting during the month without traveling out of town. And then there s Comancheria April That s always a hoot and who doesn t like to visit Fredericksburg? I m looking forward to seeing y all next weekend to make some smoke! Open Range Information Our next Long Range at 's new "Open Range" will be a gong match for your big bore lever or single shot rifles on Sunday, February 4. Single shot rifles will shoot 5 rounds at each of the long range targets, from 100 yards out to 350 yards. That's a total of 25 rounds for the match. Folks with lever guns can shoot a shorter distance course, shooting the targets at 100 yards, 150 yards, and 200 yards, and then back to the 150 yard and 100 yard targets. Lever guns will also shoot 5 rounds at each target for a total of 25 rounds. We are currently on winter hours so the range will open for practice and sight in at 9:00 am with the match starting at 10:00 am. GW Ketchum has shot extremely well at our first two long range gong matches. We need some more folks to come out and challenge him before he gets too big for his britches! These matches are a lot of fun, and there is a real sense of satisfaction to lob that big chunk of lead out 350 yards and hear that steel ring! We held our first official Cowboy Silhouette match for pistol caliber and rimfire rifles in January. The next silhouette match will be on practice day, Saturday, February 10. This match will be for rifle caliber rifles and will shoot the full size silhouette targets. The chicken is at 50 yards, the pig is at 100 yards, the turkey is at 150 yards, and the ram is at 200 yards. Silhouette matches shoot 10 rounds at each of the animals, for a total of 40 rounds. Again, winter hours are in place so the range will open for practice and sight in at 9:00 am and the match will start at 10:00 am. You can shoot either lever or single shot rifles at this match. If you have a big bore lever gun that is just dying to be brought out for a little exercise, come on out and give it a whirl. Cody Dixon shooters should come out and show us how it is done! 4

5 Those of you with lever guns, we know it can be a little hard to find non-jacketed ammo for your rifles. So if you only have jacketed bullets for a or a 38-55, those will be allowed at the silhouette match. However, only cast lead bullets will be allowed for any other caliber, for example, 40-65, 45-70, or.30 caliber rifles other than We want as many folks as possible to be able to shoot, but we need to protect our targets and assure safety for our shooters as well, hence only lead bullets for all the more powerful rifles. Now that we are getting to shoot our long range guns a little more, we would like to know if folks would like to see some training or guidance offered on long range shooting topics. Some topics that may be of interest are; 1) how to read and how to use a long range sight, 2) how to reload for long range shooting, 3) what is important in developing a long range load for high accuracy. Training or guidance could be in the form of articles in the World Guardian or hands on instruction at the range. If this is something that might interest you, please let us know so we can try to meet your needs. Product Review Part II: last month we took a look at the RCBS Brass Shotgun Die; this allows you to reload and crimp slightly the mouth of the brass shell improving loading into shotguns. This month I want to look at a modification I made for this die. Using it in my Lee Classic cast press I find the locking ring to be too thick; the die body doesn t have enough external threads to allow the die to screw into the press as deep as it needs to. It needs just an 1/8 more to work. First possible solution was to buy a set of locking rings but there was no guarantee that they would be thinner than the OEM. Next I thought about using a belt sander to thin the locking ring (nope too likely to sand my fingertips off) or grind down the top of the press (really, I could keep it level with hand held equipment) and rejected both of these as unrealistic or dangerous to life and limb. What I came up with it taking an internally-threaded PVC fitting and carefully cut off a slice of it. Now the plastic threads are not a perfect fit to the die but it will do an adequate job of acting like a jam nut which is all I really need. It won t survive a 12 crescent wrench but I find finger tight is all that is required. One thing I did learn was not to use the outermost threads, rather cut off about 1/16 and then cut your locking ring. The initial threads aren t threaded the same as further in. 5

6 The Thunder River Mercantile Osage Mike s: I'm a one man shop building custom leather goods for cowboy action shooters. I build holsters, cartridge belts, shotgun belts and cowboy shooter accessories one at a time. member Osage Mike, jayemgee@msn.com Phone: Wooden Fully Adjustable Bench Top Shooting Sticks Made in the U.S.A. Solid Oak, wood sealed for long life, heavy duty construction, leather strips on uprights to protect rifle, pinned-easy height adjustment, fully adjustable to match shooting bench height and shooter, collapses for easy transportation. If anyone is interested in owning one of these bench top shooting sticks built by one of your fellow members please contact Cartwright at gauth1965@gmail.com Currently have 5 ready for delivery shortly after 08 December, also currently orders would take about 2-3 weeks to deliver. Cost - $120 Thanks, J M Leather: is a small leather shop where leather items are crafted one at a time to provide long service to the cowboy shooter. Johnny and his wife Montana Hannah are cowboy shooters as well and understand getting what you paid for and being treated fair. The promise is a simple one, if you are not happy with your gear, let us make it right. We want you to be proud of the gear you wear, and proud that you got it from us. We are not a big name maker, but we will put our reputation and gear up against anyone. Johnny Morris, jmorris69007@msn.com website: 6

7 After months of anxious anticipation, Volume Two of the Adventures of Double Dog Darrenger and Gappy Jack Daniels: Deadwood or Bust was published on December 16, 2017 and is now available. A little late for Christmas, but just in time for that special Epiphany gift or your personal celebration of Elvis Presley s birthday (we don t judge). Copies will be available at the December 30 th shoot for the less than kingly sum of $10. Cheaper than the Amazon price (also available there) and with better delivery! For those that were expecting a June 2017 publishing, as announced in the Cowboy Chronicle, the author would like to apologize for the delay, but she has been battling some long term cardiac issues and that has been the priority. Questman/dp/ /ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid= &sr=1-1 Down South Leather, Custom Leather Goods for the Cowboy Life Style by Rusty Reb is proud to announce the opening of its Houston branch. Contact Rusty and discuss your needs and wants; he s only an or phone call away: RustyReb49@Yahoo.com or Oklahoma Dee Vendor/Services/Products Company is on line and open for business. Dee has been working on this for some time and is proud to announce the start of this business as well as his operational website. Take a few moments to check out this new and exciting venture. or RangeMaster@thunderriverrenegades.com 7

8 Shooting once a month not enough? Oakwood Outlaws 2nd Sat. & Sun. every month and the Monday following the 2 nd weekend. Willow Hole Cowboys 3 rd Weekend of the month Officers 2015 El Jefe: Blackpowder Burn (BPB) president@thunderriverrenegades.com Vice-Pres: GW Ketchum vicepresident@thunderriverrenegades.com Secretary: cheyenne secretary@thunderriverrenegades.com Treasurer: Osage Mike (Osage) treasurer@thunderriverrenegades.com Range Master: Oklahoma Dee (OkD) RangeMaster@thunderriverrenegades.com TG: Texas Jack Daniels (TJD) TXTJD@sbcglobal.net Did you ever notice the new SASS Trademark doesn t have the name of the organization spelled out like the old one? Sometimes I wonder if we don t want to offend folks who find the word Shooting repugnent. 8

9 Calendar -- January 2018 SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY Maintance Day Calendar --February 2018 SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY Maintance Day Practice Day & Long Range Rifle-cal. Gong cowboy silhouette Willow Hole Maintance Day

10 Calendar --March 2018 NOTES SUNDAY MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY & Election Open Range Gong TSRA Willow Hole